Over on his own blog this time, our own David Gilson has been reviewing the latest idea for charging your 'spare' smartphone batteries - the SBC, or "Smart Battery Charger". With spacers to fit most Nokia batteries, this does seem a great way to charge your spares without having to cycle them through the actual phone(s).
comScore have recently published a couple of press releases which contain interesting statistics about smartphone market penetration and mobile platform market share. For example, people are twice as likely to buy a smartphone in Italy than they are in Germany. Symbian's strong position in Europe is shown by market share figures of 47%, 55% and 74% in the UK, Germany and Spain respectively. The figures provide a contrast to the frequently reported US market share figures and demonstrate the degree of regional differentiation.
As a commenter in yesterday's story pointed out, the fact the Nokia totally broke their Ovi Store yesterday does have a potential upside: until things get fixed up, content aimed at specific devices is now available to other devices. Potentially dangerous, but one highlight is that the official Facebook client, only ratified previously for the E71 and E72, is now offered for other S60 3rd Edition devices. Grab it while you can. Screenshots below of it running on the N86, for example.
You'll have seen my previous 'retro' article, looking at pimping the Nokia E61i, an early 2007 device that can now be picked up for pocket money but which still has a unique form factor. The same applies, but 'in spades', to the Nokia E90, released only a few months after the E61i but sporting the full Communicator form and also S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, plus SDHC support. Like the E61i, it too had a few performance bottlenecks, so how did I get on pimping the Nokia E90 to 2010 standards and might it possibly challenge the mighty (ahem) N97?
In All About Symbian Insight 111 (AAS Podcast 175), Rafe and Steve talk about the outstanding value provided by the Nokia 5230 (highlighting T-Mobile's recent offer). We also look at Mobile Documents, with an emphasis on its file streaming technology, as well as Shazam's 1 million downloads from Ovi Store, the Nokia 6788i and MM-Ovi Store before considering some listener questions. You can listen to AAS Insight 111 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia have tweaked the Ovi Store with some changes that should prove popular to most users; clearer information about the content you are browsing, more stars when rating applications, and review devices noted. Read on for more about these changes, including screens and info on a new Ovi Store client.
The Phones Show 106 just went live, now with an audio-only version (by popular demand), featuring 'Optimising the Nokia N97', plus a User Story with a very happy Nokia E55 user. There's also my review of the HTC Legend. And don't forget Phones Show Chat each week, the audio podcast where Tim Salmon and I chat about smartphones around a pint cup of coffee...
Nokia and China Mobile recently announced MM-Ovi Store, a combination of the companies respective application stores. MM-Ovi Store will be pre-installed on Nokia's China Mobile handsets and enables access to a diverse range of mobile applications and games.
At the same time Nokia also unveiled the Nokia 6788i, an updated version of the Nokia 6788, which runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian and features TD-SCDMA connectivity, a five megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory and integrated GPS. The 6788i, which will arrive in April, will be the first phone with MM-Ovi Store pre-loaded.
Two years ago the Nokia N95 8GB was on top of the world, the N96 was the newest offshoot, the E61i was the best bet for the common man in the business world, and their 2.8" screens were deemed massive. And, the oddity of the E90 notwithstanding, we were happy. Weren't we? These phones did all we asked them to and the the world was good. And yet, less than 24 months later we find the smartphone world dominated by 4" screened, touch-only devices that bear little resemblance to the champions of 2008. Is it all the iPhone's fault, or is there more to the change? And where do smartphones go from here?
Here and Now has formally graduated from Beta Labs and is now available for selected devices. Here and Now finds weather, movies and restaurants (etc) around you and has been in an extremely long Beta Labs test, but has now been released for S60 5th Edition and selected 3rd Edition smartphones via Ovi Store and Software Update, restricted because of the version of Web needed. Wider device compatibility in the future is promised. Some details below.
Shazam announced today that its music recognition application has been downloaded by over one million Nokia users from the Ovi Store since its launch in August last year. The Shazam app has been downloaded in more than 200 different markets onto over 40 different handsets. Read on for further details, a video interview and a demo with Shazam's Iain Dendle at MWC 2010, together with some additional App Store commentary.
Mobile Documents was one of the star performers at today's DEMO conference. Richard Bloor takes a first look at this mobile email and documents solution from Sweden’s Visiarc. The application implements patent pending “cherry picking” technology, which promises a better way to manage email and their attachments on your mobile device. Read on, in our feature article, for more details.
In All About Symbian Insight 110 (AAS Podcast 174), Rafe and Steve share news of the arrival of Ovi Map's free navigation on the N86, and the release of the Silverlight for Symbian Beta. Steve tells us about a community firmware release for the Samsung i8910 and introduces a discussion on the death of Wayfinder; Rafe talks about Navteq True (next generation digital mapping data collection) and shares some initial thoughts on Windows Phone 7 Series. You can listen to AAS Insight 110 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
The Compact-qwerty-equipped Nokia E55 just got itself a firmware update, available widely for all unbranded handsets, taking the E55 from v31.012 firmware to v33.002. It's a 3.8MB update Over The Air and there's the usual full retention of your data and apps. No changelog has surfaced yet, so comments welcome if you spot something new (or better!) Maps 3.3, it seems, is the biggest addition, i.e. the free navigation version is now built-in. It also seems that the E52 has received the same update.
The halls of Austin have been cleared of the SXSW Interactive crowd, to be replaced with the bands, managers, promoters and fans of the music conference. And that’s brought a sea change to a certain factor: it’s almost impossible to spot more than a handful of iPhones. From the reaction in the halls, Nokia have a chance to win over America this year.